>> most of them are human beings as well
Ha! That's cute. Yeah there are a few that I have my doubts about too... possible part-cyborg or bionic-marketing-men seem to exist out there. And rarely but every now and then you come across a slimmey little critter too. But MOST of them are human beings.


>> One excuse that people often make for not contacting gurus is that "oh, they probably wouldn't reply anyway". It wouldn't hurt to try, would it?
Fear of rejection and loss self-esteem (or something along those lines) tie in here.

If you seriously doubt the value of your proposal, then either (1) you have an internal dialogue problem you need to fix QUICK! or (2) maybe your proposal really ISN'T valuable and you should revise and upgrade it.

It's along the same lines of why so many service providers charge piddly change for their expertise. "Who am I to charge $30, $40, $60, $100+ per hour ... when my father worked all his life for $22/hr. Who am I to deserve $300/hr" (or whatever, doesn't have to be per hour but you get the picture).

Either work on your self-esteem (ie: mindset) or improve your proposal. But if your message, your product, your offer, your proposal really is something taht would excite YOU if the roles were reversed then damn rights you should be chasing up any top authority that you want to deal with.

And never put anyone on a pedastal.


>> That's why Rob's strategy is so good:
>> -find out what they might want/need
Thanks for the kudos.

And that comes from hands-on experience too. Back in year 1, (clueless, no skill, no assets, no credibility year one!)... I connected with a well known marketer who holds a 110k mailing list and can push out sales quite easily... I offered to create a product for her and politely asked for 15-minutes of her time so I could better explore what product I could create for her. I mentioned she'd get full PLR to it and I would not sell the license to anyone else. It would be her product (though I mentioned, I'd retain PLR options for myself). All I asked is in trade she'd seriously consider my own next product release as an affiliate.

I didn't need (or want) her to commit to promoting for me... I just asked that when I DO launch my own product, she gives it her serious attention to consider my proposal.

Yup. Got her attention. We never moved ahead on the deal but she told me she referenced that conversation as an example to many of her clients and peers. I still keep in touch with her to this day. She has been a contributor in 2 of my products and a top affiliate for one of my promotions.

Think about it... sure there's a mini gamble here... but let's say I created a standard $100-ish info product for her. That's maybe 2-3 weeks of work. I would have had private label version of taht same product (so I still gain an asset if I later want to sell it on my end), I would have gained name exposure with her list though she would have taken full profits. BUT... if she were to then promote another of my offers, it could be worth thousands of leads to me. Each of those leads is typically worth thousands PER MONTH. (obviously rough numbers, rough examples here). Point is... back when I had no assets, no distribution, no credibility... to invest 2-3 weeks into creating a digital asset and then having a high probability of gaining thousands of leads worth thousands per month to me is a GREAT GREAT trade off.

I could offer that same deal to 1, 2, 3, 4 top names and even if just ONE followed through (and promoted my own next release), I'd be sitting pretty. All in my first 90 days.

Though, yes, as Curtis pointed out... this obviously would assume that you understand product development, research etc etc. THOUGH even then, you could just play middle man, find yourself 1 or 2 product developers, approach the top names, get their product specs, pay your product developers to create said products, you deliver on your promise and have yourself incredible leverage for a TRUE joint venture.

Curtis... thanks for the followup to my off-on-another-tangent post. Great points shared there.